Chronic hepatitis B infection and pre-eclampsia/eclampsia: a Mendelian randomisation study

Background This study aimed to investigate the potential causal association between chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection and the risk of pre-eclampsia/eclampsia using a Mendelian randomisation (MR) design.Methods We conducted a two-sample MR analysis using genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Rui Pu, Zhen Wang, Xiaopeng Shang, Jiexia Lu, Jiling Xu, Yuhang Xing
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2025-12-01
Series:Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
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Online Access:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/01443615.2025.2500972
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Summary:Background This study aimed to investigate the potential causal association between chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection and the risk of pre-eclampsia/eclampsia using a Mendelian randomisation (MR) design.Methods We conducted a two-sample MR analysis using genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary statistics from three large-scale datasets. For CHB infection, we used data from 351,885 individuals UK Biobank. For pre‑eclampsia/eclampsia, we analysed two FinnGen datasets with sample sizes of 118,291 and 126,760 individuals, respectively. Genetic variants strongly associated with CHB infection (p < 5 × 10−8) were selected as instrumental variables. The inverse-variance weighted (IVW) method was employed as the primary analysis. Sensitivity analyses included MR-Egger regression, weighted median, weighted mode and MR-PRESSO. Cochran’s Q test and MR-Egger intercept tests were performed to assess heterogeneity and horizontal pleiotropy, respectively.Results MR analysis revealed significant positive genetic associations between CHB infection and increased risk of pre-eclampsia (OR = 1.154, 95%CI = 1.014–1.313, p = .029) and eclampsia (OR = 1.561, 95%CI = 1.030–2.366, p = .035). Findings were robust across sensitivity analyses for both outcomes.Conclusions Our study provides genetic evidence that CHB infection increases the risk of both pre-eclampsia and eclampsia. These findings suggest that considering CHB status as a risk factor and implementing targeted HBV screening programmes may be beneficial for pregnant women.
ISSN:0144-3615
1364-6893